Occupy Oakland fallout may echo beyond downtown

OCCUPY OAKLAND

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, November 13, 2011

Photo: David Butow, Special To The Chronicle

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Nohemi Perez, the owner of the Juice Joint restaurant and deli, which is next to Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland, has seen her business fall sharply since the start of the Occupy Oakland movement.

Nohemi Perez, the owner of the Juice Joint restaurant and deli, which is next to Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland, has seen her business fall sharply since the start of the Occupy Oakland movement.

Photo: David Butow, Special To The Chronicle

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Manager Mazouk Amari waits for lunchtime customres at the Plaza Cafe, which is next to Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland. Business has been way down since the Occupy movement began. The restaurant is usually filled during the lunch hour. less

Manager Mazouk Amari waits for lunchtime customres at the Plaza Cafe, which is next to Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland. Business has been way down since the Occupy movement began. The restaurant is ... more

Photo: David Butow, Special To The Chronicle

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Business at the Juice Joing, which is next to Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland, is way down since the Occupy movement began.

Business at the Juice Joing, which is next to Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland, is way down since the Occupy movement began.

Photo: David Butow, Special To The Chronicle

Occupy Oakland fallout may echo beyond downtown

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Three events planned for Oakland's historic Rotunda Hall were canceled this month. Four cafes abutting Frank Ogawa Plaza say customers are reluctant to visit, and they've cut employee hours. Several merchants on or around Broadway, including the Oaksterdam marijuana empire, say business is down.

Meanwhile, two other cafes at the plaza say sales are better than ever. And a block away at City Center Plaza, the midday flow of office workers grabbing lunch is undiminished.

As Occupy Oakland enters its fifth week, the encampment's impact on neighborhood businesses appears to consist largely of reduced sales - and a few increased sales - in the immediate vicinity, according to local merchants. But city leaders worry that something larger is at stake: Oakland's image as a place to shop, eat out or run a business.

Some store owners attribute the sales declines to customers' reluctance to brave the sights, sounds and smells of the 180-tent encampment. Protesters say that overblown media coverage and fear of police brutality could be daunting visitors.

"We are very distressed by the broad impact the encampment has had on downtown," said J.C. Wallace, president of the Downtown Oakland Association. "This is hurting people who can't afford to be hurt, primarily small-business owners. It definitely deters people from coming downtown; there are fewer customers and business is down."

In a survey this week of 1,100 Oakland voters and likely voters, the Chamber of Commerce found that 37 percent said the camp made them less likely to visit downtown.

Jesse Smith, who is part of Occupy Oakland's Local Business Liaison committee, said many establishments reporting fewer customers "only experienced a detriment after the police action," referring to the Oct. 25 clash between protesters and police in riot gear. He said that shows that it is fear of the police, not the protesters, keeping people away.

Informal Chronicle canvassing of 30 small restaurants and retailers near the camp found 16 reporting negative consequences from the encampment, three saying business had improved and the rest reporting no impact.

"We're trying to survive, but we are losing money daily," said Marzouk Amari, manager of the Plaza Cafe, which looks out on the edges of the camp. On a recent lunchtime, only two tables were occupied while one customer waited at the steam table. "Usually we have a line out the door and every table, inside and outside, is full," he said.

Out of five full-time workers, he's asked one to take vacation and cut the others' hours in half, he said.

Three other plaza restaurants, the Rotisserie, Caffe Teatro and the Juice Joint Eatery, said their business is down too. Nohemi Perez, owner of the Juice Joint, said she cut a couple of hours off her employees' shifts and works longer hours herself. "We are about 20 percent slower every day," she said.

But at the Rising Loafer Cafe and Bakery, which directly fronts the encampment, owner Maria Gastelumendi said her business is up 50 percent because many Occupy protesters and visitors to the camp are eating there.

At the corner of Broadway, Tully's Coffee saw business rise after vandals smashed its store windows during the general strikes, said manager Shari River.

"People saw all the media coverage and they came from far and wide to show support," she said. She said she appreciates the peacefulness of the majority of protesters, who helped evict the vandals and board up the windows.

Occupy participants said they encourage supporters to patronize local shops and cafes, to volunteer time to help with graffiti cleanup and to raise money to repair vandalism.

"Any business we're hurting, we'll put it on Facebook, Twitter and our website and ask people to please shop there," said Adam Jordan, an Occupy protester and a member of the Onyx Organizing Committee grassroots organization. "We get a lot of people at our events - we're urging them to shop at local businesses."

Smith said the occupation had helped many credit unions attract new members as part of Nov. 5's Bank Transfer Day, which encouraged consumers to withdraw their money from large banks. That movement sprang up independently of Occupy, but was promoted by Occupy supporters.

Even some merchants far from downtown said the camp is hurting them as the city diverts resources to Occupy.

Deborah Boyer, president of the Lake Merritt/Uptown District Association, said she understands that issues surrounding the encampment are nuanced.

"There is a lot of positive sentiment toward the intent of this movement and a lot of frustration and disappointment that what I think most people intended as a peaceful message was derailed by fringe groups to become an opportunity for property damage," she said. "We need to move on from where we are now. We're at a place where what is happening in Frank Ogawa Plaza has devolved."

Immediately adjacent to the plaza, the impact continues to be felt from the soaring gold-trimmed dome of the Rotunda Hall to the bench where a shoeshine guy waits for business.

Midge Walterhouse, events manager at the Rotunda, said three events, ranging from 150 guests to 300 guests, were canceled this month because organizers worried about guests being heckled or having safety issues. A total of 44 hourly workers - bartenders, servers, chefs, kitchen staff - would have been employed for those three events, she said. Now she's talking to "some very concerned brides" who booked December weddings at the site.

Steve McRaven, who shines shoes at the plaza, says he's lucky to get one or two customers a day now. "It's been kind of rough," he said. "I don't know if I can wait it out."

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